Notes and Queries, Number 203, September 17, 1853

    J. Sansom.

Mauilies, Manillas (Vol. vii., p. 533.).—W. H. S. will probably find some of the information which he asks for in Two Essays on the Ring-Money of the Celtæ, which were read in the year 1837 to the members of the Royal Irish Academy by Sir William Betham, and in some observations on these essays which are to be found in the Gentleman's Magazine of that year. During the years 1836, 1837, and 1838, there were made at Birmingham or the neighbourhood, and exported from Liverpool to the river Bonney in Africa, large quantities of cast-iron rings, in imitation of the copper rings known as "Manillas" or "African ring-money," then made at Bristol. A vessel from Liverpool, carrying out a considerable quantity of these cast-iron rings, was wrecked on the coast of Ireland in the summer of 1836. A few of them having fallen into the hands of Sir William Betham, he was led to write the Essays before mentioned. The making of these cast-iron rings has been discontinued since the year 1838, in consequence of the natives of Africa refusing to give anything in exchange for them. From inquiry which I made in Birmingham in the year 1839, I learnt that more than 250 tons of these cast-iron rings had been made in that town and neighbourhood in the year 1838, for the African market. The captain of a vessel trading to Africa informed me in the same year that the Black Despot, who then ruled on the banks of the river Bonney, had threatened to mutilate, in a way which I will not describe, any one who should be detected in landing these counterfeit rings within his territories.

    N. W. S.

The Use of the Hour-glass in Pulpits (Vol. vii., p. 589.; Vol. viii., p. 82.).—Your correspondent A. W. S. having called attention to the use of the hour-glass in pulpits (Vol. vii., p. 589.), I beg to mention two instances in which I have seen the stands which formerly held them. The first is at Pilton Church, near Barnstaple, Devon, where it still (at least very lately it did) remain fixed to the pulpit; the other instance is at Tawstock Church (called, from its numerous and splendid monuments, the Westminster Abbey of North Devon), but here it has been displaced, and I saw it lying among fragments of old armour, banners, &c., in a room above the vestry. They were similar in form, each representing a man's arm, cut out of sheet iron and gilded, the hand holding the stand; turning on a hinge at the shoulder it lay flat on the panels of the pulpit when not in use. When extended it would project about a yard.

    Balliolensis.

George Poulson, Esq., in his History and Antiquities of the Seignory of Holderness (vol. ii. p. 419.), describing Keyingham Church, says that—

"The pulpit is placed on the south-east corner; beside it is an iron frame-work, used to contain an hour-glass."

    Edward Peacock.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

Derivation of the Word "Island" (Vol. viii., p. 209.).—Your correspondent C. gives me credit for a far greater amount of humour than I can honestly lay claim to. He appears (he must excuse me for saying so) to have scarcely read through my observations on the derivation of the word island, which he criticises so unmercifully; and to have understood very imperfectly what he has read. For instance, he says that my "derivation of island from eye, the visual orb, because each are (sic) surrounded by water, seems like banter," &c. Had I insisted on any such analogy, I should indeed have laid myself open to the charge; but I did nothing of the kind, as he will find to be the case, if he will take the trouble of perusing what I wrote. My remarks went to show, that, in the A.-S. compounded terms, Ealond, Igland, &c., from which our word island comes, the component ea, ig, &c., does not mean water, as has hitherto been supposed to be the case, but an eye; and that on this supposition alone can the simple ig, used to express an island, be explained. Will C. endeavour to explain it in any other way?

Throughout my remarks, the word isle is not mentioned. And why? Simply because it has no immediate etymological connexion with the word island, being merely the French word naturalised. The word isle is a simple, the word island a compound term. It is surely a fruitless task (as it certainly is unnecessary for any one, with the latter word ready formed to his hand in the Saxon branch of the Teutonic, and, from its very form, clearly of that family), to go out of his way to torture the Latin into yielding something utterly foreign to it. My belief is, that the resemblance between these two words is an accidental one; or, more properly, that it is a question whether the introduction of an s into the word island did not originate in the desire to assimilate the Saxon and French terms.

    H. C. K.

A Cob-wall (Vol. viii., p. 151.).—A "cob" is not an unusual word in the midland counties, meaning a lump or small hard mass of anything: it also means a blow; and a good "cobbing" is no unfamiliar expression to the generality of schoolboys. A "cob-wall," I imagine, is so called from its having been made of heavy lumps of clay, beaten one upon another into the form of a wall. I would ask, if "gob," used also in Devonshire for the stone of any fruit which contains a kernel, is not a cognate word?

    W. Fraser.

Tor Mohun.

Oliver Cromwell's Portrait (Vol. vi. passim).—In reference to this Query, the best portrait of Oliver Cromwell is in the Baptist College here, and 500 guineas have been refused for it.

I am not aware if it is the one alluded to by your correspondents. The picture is small, and depicts the Protector without armour: it is by Cooper, and was left to its present possessors by the Rev. Andrew Gifford, a Baptist minister, in 1784.

Two copies have been made of it, but the original has never been engraved; from one of the copies, however, an engraving is in process of execution, after the picture by Mr. Newenham, of "Cromwell dictating to Milton his letter to the Duke of Savoy." The likeness of Cromwell in this picture is taken from one of the copies.

The original is not allowed to be taken from off the premises on any consideration, in consequence of a dishonest attempt having been made, some time ago, to substitute a copy for it.

    Bristoliensis.

Manners of the Irish (Vol. viii., pp. 5. 111.)—A slight knowledge of Gaelic enables me to supply the meaning of some of the words that have puzzled your Irish correspondents. Molchan (Gaelic, Mulachan) means "cheese."

"Deo gracias, is smar in Doieagh."

I take to mean "Thanks to God, God is good." In Gaelic the spelling would be—"is math in Dia." A Roman Catholic Celt would often hear his priest say "Deo Gratias."

The meaning of the passage seems to be pretty clear, and may be rendered thus:—The Irish farmer, although in the abundant enjoyment of bread, butter, cheese, flesh, and broth, is not only not ashamed to complain of poverty as an excuse for non-payment of his rent, but has the effrontery to thank God, as if he were enjoying only those blessings of Providence to which he is justly entitled.

    W. C.

Argyleshire.

Chronograms and Anagrams (Vol. viii., p. 42.).—Perhaps the most extraordinary instance to be found in reference to chronograms is the following:

"Chronographica Gratulatio in Felicissimum adventum Serenissimi Cardinalis Ferdinandi, Hispaniarum Infantis, a Collegio Soc. Jesu. Bruxellæ publico Belgarum Gaudio exhibita."

This title is followed by a dedication to S. Michael and an address to Ferdinand; after which come one hundred hexameters, every one of which is a chronogram, and each chronogram gives the same result, viz. 1634. The first three verses are,—

"AngeLe CæLIVogI MIChaëL LUX UnICa CætUs.
Pro nUtU sUCCInCta tUo CUI CUnCta MInIstrant.
SIDera qUIqUe poLo gaUDentIa sIDera VoLVUnt."

The last two are,—

"Vota Cano: hæC LeVIbus qUamVIs nUnC InCLyte prInCeps.
VersICULIs InCLUsa, fLUent in sæCULa CentUm."

All the numeral letters are printed in capitals, and the whole is to be found in the Parnassus Poeticus Societatis Jesu (Francofurti, 1654), at pp. 445-448. of part i. In the same volume there is another example of the chronogram, at p. 261., in the "Septem Mariæ Mysteria" of Antonius Chanut. It occurs at the close of an inscription:

"StatUaM hanC—eX Voto ponIt
FernanDUs TertIUs AUgUstUs."

The date is 1647.

"Henriot, an ingenious anagrammatist, discovered the following anagram for the occasion of the 15th:

'Napoleon Bonaparte sera-t-il consul à vie,
La [le] peuple bon reconnoissant votera Oui.'

There is only a trifling change of a to e."—Gent. Mag., Aug. 1802, p. 771.

The following is singular:

"Quid est veritas? = Vir qui adest."

I add another chronogram "by Godard, upon the birth of Louis XIV. in 1638, on a day when the eagle was in conjunction with the lion's heart:"

"EXorIens DeLphIn AqUILa CorDIsqUe LeonIs
CongressU GaLLos spe LætItIaqUe refeCIt."

    B. H. C.
"Haul over the Coals" (Vol. viii., p. 125.).—This appears to mean just the same as "roasting"—to inflict upon any one a castigation per verbum and in good humour.

To cover over the coals is the same as to cower over the coals, as a gipsy over a fire. Thus Hodge says of Gammer Gurton and Tib, her maid:

"'Tis their daily looke,
They cover so over the coles their eies be bleared with smooke."

To carry coals to Newcastle is well understood to be like giving alms to the wealthy; but viewed in union with the others would show what a prominent place coals seem to have in the popular mind.